The Providence Podcast: John

Mothers Day & God's Ordinary Means of Grace

Chris Oswald — Sun, 11 May 2025 10:01:00 +0100

Mothers Day & God's Ordinary Means of Grace

Series: John

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 11th May 2025

Resurrection Responsibilities

Chris Oswald — Sun, 04 May 2025 10:01:00 +0100

Resurrection Responsibilities

Series: John

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 4th May 2025

Passage: John 20:1-31

The Wisdom of God in the Cross

Chris Oswald — Sun, 27 Apr 2025 10:00:00 +0100

The Wisdom of God in the Cross

Series: John

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 27th April 2025

Passage: John 19:1-42

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Title: The Wisdom of God on Display in the Cross // The Cross: God’s Most Painful Proverb Text John 19

In 1 Corinthians 1:22-24 Paul says, “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

The cross is both the power and the wisdom of God. Earlier in 1 Corinthians 1, Paul says that the cross is the power of salvation to those being saved. We tend to think of the cross mostly as a means of salvation. But Paul says the cross is also the wisdom of God.

That’s what I want to lock in on this morning. The wisdom of God displayed in the cross. I think the cross is a basically God’s greatest and most painful proverb.

A proverb is a very condensed saying, a very dense collection of words, that yields innumerable moral lessons as you meditate on it. A single proverb is something like a chunk of coal. Highly compressed carbon that contains a massive amount of energy in a small package. You can take a proverb and put it in the furnace of your heart/mind and get a large amount of light and heat from that little dense nugget.

That is why I think of the cross as God’s greatest proverb. On the one hand, it is a very compressed moment in time, all taking place on a Friday morning/early afternoon. But there is unlimited light and heat to be gained from this single event. And the more you meditate on the cross, the more light and heat it bears.

Here’s something I just noticed this year as I studied John 18-19

The Cross and Your Career

Jesus was crucified by a group of people who were “just doing their job.”

As chief priest, it was Ciaphas’ job to keep the religious purity of Israel. And to generally look out for her welfare. In John 11, he sets the arrest, accusation, and crucifixion of Jesus in motion by saying,

“If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” (John 11:48-50)

So Jesus is arrested and handed over to Pontus Pilate who again just did his job. It was Pilate’s job to keep the peace in Jerusalem – to prevent and or put down riots. So even though he said three times that he found no guilt in Jesus – he nonetheless crucified him because he was just doing his job.

And finally, it was the Roman soldiers who crucified him. These soldiers had nothing against Jesus. They simply had a job to do. They reported to Pilate. Questions of guilt were above their paygrade. So when Pilate ordered that Jesus be flogged, they flogged him. And when Pilate ordered Jesus to be crucified, they nailed him to the cross. They too were just doing their job.

And you could apply this in all sorts of ways. It is possible to be vocationally fruitful and spiritual faithless. It is possible both to do a good job in the eyes of man and do an evil thing in the eyes of God.

And then you could compare the work of these men with the work of Jesus. Jesus’ work looked absolutely foolish, fruitless, a total and complete waste.

My point is that the cross seems to have something to say about everything. Even the evils of mindless professionalism. And that whenever a big question about life and conduct emerged in the early church, the first Christians could look to the cross for wisdom.

The Cross and the Sovereignty of God

So let’s read some of the text for today. Let’s look at John 19, beginning with the end of vs. 16

So they took Jesus, 17 and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. 19 Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”

23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, 24 so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says,

“They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”

28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

31 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.

The Sovereignty of God

In terms of wisdom, one of the greatest bits of insight we can gain from meditating on the cross is that God is perfectly in control. While the book of Proverbs carries a wide variety of lessons, the central matter is the sovereignty of God.

Proverbs 16:9 “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.”

Proverbs 19:21 “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.”

Proverbs 16:33 “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.”

Proverbs 20:24 “A man’s steps are from the LORD; how then can man understand his way?”

The cross offered early Christians undeniable evidence that this is true. Whatever man is up to, no matter how rebellious or evil or misguided… whatever man is doing of his own free will, the God of the universe orders his steps.

The sovereignty of God is a central lesson of the cross.

In Acts 2:22-24, Peter says – ““Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.”

One example of this has to do with the way the rulers of that time and place both acted freely in their own self-interest while simultaneously serving God’s sovereign purposes.

Proverbs 21:1 says, “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.”

So when Ciaphas says, ““If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” (John 11:48-50)

John offers the following commentary.

He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. – John 11:51-52

And when three times, Pilate declared Jesus to be guiltless, he was saying more than he meant to say. Likewise, when Pilate orders a sign be hastily painted in Greek, Aramaic, and Latin – saying ““Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” – he is saying more than he knew.

Psalm 2 talks about the nations raging, and the kings of the earth conspiring against the Lord’s anointed – to which the Lord laughs and holds them in derision. Let them rage. Let them conspire. All of their flailing will serve to accomplish the definite plan of God.

And speaking of the Psalms, we see the sovereignty of God displayed in the fulfillment of scriptures written hundreds and thousands of years prior.

Look at vs. 23-24

“They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”

That’s from Psalm 22.

And in vs. 28 we read,

After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.

That was to fulfill Psalm 69:34-35

You know my reproach, and my shame and my dishonor; my foes are all known to you. Reproaches have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none. They gave me poison for food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink.

And again in vs. 31

Here two sets of Scripture converge: Psalms 34:20, depicting God’s care for the righteous man: “He protects all his bones; not one of them will be broken” and Exodus 12:46 and Numbers 9:12, specifying that no bone of the Passover lamb may be broken.

And then you have all of the typological fulfillments. In addition to being the obvious fulfillment of the scape goat, driven outside the camp, Jesus is the passover lamb. God had providentially guided all these events so that Jesus would die in Jerusalem during the passover.

So whenever the early Christians got into a situation where they had to wonder if God was really in control, they could look to the cross and see the fundamental building block of all wisdom – God is sovereign over everything at all times. Only a sovereign God could orchestrate the innumerable factors that led to the crucifixion of his son.

Turn in your bibles to Galatians 4:4-5

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

The fullness of time – the idea here is that God had been working from the beginning to bring about this event.

When God promises an avenger to Eve – he is thinking of the cross. When God commands Abraham to sacrifice Issac – he is thinking of the cross. When Joseph is betrayed by his brothers only to bring them into his bless – God is thinking about the cross. When God ordains that the blood of the lamb will cause death to pass over the Jews – he is thinking about the cross. When he initiates the sacrificial system - he is thinking of the cross. When God brings king David to power through suffering – he is thinking of the cross.

I could keep going…

As the early Christians mined the cross for wisdom, they found that even the materials used for the cross spoke of the sovereignty of God.

NAILS: The nails that pierced His hands were forged from hematite and magnetite that Jesus deposited into the earth’s crust in creation. The forge that melted the steel was burning with the oxygen molecules. Each O₂ molecule, with its double-bonded structure and reactive electrons, played a role in fueling the forge’s fire.

WOOD: The wood of the cross grew from seeds that fell from the original trees He spoke into existence. The seed itself contained the exquisitely designed DNA, a library of information. Compared to modern technology, DNA is orders of magnitude denser than the best hard drives or flash storage. For example, a 2023 study demonstrated that 1 gram of DNA can theoretically store 215 million gigabytes) of data, far surpassing any human-made storage medium.

As that seed grew into a seedling, it began to absorb the radiation of a sun that is 92.96 million miles away from the earth. The sun, which is 864,000 miles in diameter, is a nuclear fusion reactor that, along with the 100–400 billion other stars in our galaxy, is being sustained by the word of Christ’s power.

MANPOWER: All of this raw material was fashioned into nails and a cross by human beings. And all of the creative energy and physical energy required to mine the ore, forge it and hammer it into nails; to cut down the tree and saw it into timbers – all of that came from Christ who made human beings into the most complex and beautiful pinnacle of all created things.

Take something relatively simple like hammering a nail. Talk to anyone in the robotics field about the mechanical complexity of doing even something simple like standing on uneven ground and hammering a nail into an uneven surface. Even something as simple as hand eye coordination which is enabled by the symphonic give and take of the brain’s visual cortex, motor cortex, and cerebellum.

So the early Christians could meditate on all of this and wind up seeing a God who will not be deterred but works all things according to his divine purpose. They could join along with William Cowper who wrote,

God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform: He plants His footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines Of never-failing skill, He treasures up His bright designs, And works His sovereign will.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, But trust Him for His grace; Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast, Unfolding every hour: The bud may have a bitter taste, But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err, And scan His work in vain; God is His own Interpreter, And He will make it plain.

Communion:

There is another tie in between the crucifixion (as wisdom) and the book of Proverbs.

Proverbs 10:12, “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.” Proverbs 19:11, “Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.” Proverbs 17:9, “Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends.” Proverbs 20:22, “Do not say, ‘I will repay evil’; wait for the LORD, and he will deliver you.” Proverbs 24:29, “Do not say, ‘I will do to him as he has done to me; I will pay the man back for what he has done.’”

And most importantly, Proverbs 16:6, “By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the LORD one turns away from evil.”

And this brings us back to 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

We have focused primarily on the wisdom of God on display at the cross. But as we prepare for communion, we ought to also be reminded that the cross is the power of God unto salvation.

By steadfast love and faithfulness, iniquity is atoned for.

Four Common Objections to the Christian Faith

Chris Oswald — Sun, 20 Apr 2025 10:00:00 +0100

Four Common Objections to the Christian Faith

Series: John

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 20th April 2025

Passage: John 18:1-20:31

A Prayer of Protection

Chris Oswald — Sun, 13 Apr 2025 10:00:00 +0100

A Prayer of Protection

Series: John

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 13th April 2025

Passage: John 16:31-17:25

The Holy Spirit

Chris Oswald — Sun, 06 Apr 2025 10:00:00 +0100

The Holy Spirit

Series: John

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 6th April 2025

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As we move out of Jesus’ farewell discourse, we have at least one topic that we need to cover. Namely, Jesus’ teachings about the Holy Spirit.

Salvation (16:1-11)

In verses 1-3, Jesus touches on a problem that all people have prior to conversion. They have a broken understanding of who God is and therefore have a broken understanding of what pleases God.

“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.”

Here Jesus is speaking specifically about the Jews. For the rest of the New Testament, going all the way into Revelation, the Jews are singled out as the primary antagonist to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The majority of persecution that happens in the New Testament comes at the hand of the Jews. This is because they have what Paul calls, “zeal without knowledge.”

Romans 10:1-2, “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.”

And that’s exactly what we see from Jesus in John 16:3, “they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.”

So the early, distinctly Jewish opposition to the gospel of Jesus Christ is merely an expression of their fundamental ignorance about the nature of God. Paul himself is an example of this. He was of course, a persecutor of the saints. He kept on breathing murderous threats against the church until Jesus showed himself to him. At which time he went from being a leading opponent of the gospel to a leading advocate for it. The change came about simply through the revelation of Jesus Christ.

And that is what the Holy Spirit does for us in salvation. 2 Corinthians 4:4-6,

In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

That’s the real problem. They do not see Christ. And thus walk around with wrong ideas about God and do wrong things in response to their wrong ideas. The cure? They need to see Christ. And so Paul continues in 2 Corinthians,

“For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

This is not a problem for the Jews alone. Their situation is especially tragic because God had given them the holy scriptures. And to whom much is given, much is required. But their spiritual condition is not unique at all.

We see plenty of instances in the New Testament where the pagans suffer under the same problem.

In Acts 17, Paul is walking through the city of Athens, which is absolutely littered with idols to various gods. Paul is stirred up in his spirit over this painful reminder about the problem all people everywhere have. They do bad things thinking they are doing good things. And this error all stems from their ignorance of Christ.

In vs.22-28 Paul says,

So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

From there he moves on from a general discussion of God to a specific reference to Christ.

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”– Acts 17:30-31

The big idea I am trying to communicate is that the main problem with humanity has to do with a lack of understanding the nature of God as revealed in Christ.

The Jews, the Muslims, the Hindus, the Buddhists, and even the Satanists all have the same problem. They do not see the truth of God as revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.

And so they sin, not in spite of their religious beliefs but rather because of their religious beliefs. This is also true of all the people who consider themselves non-religious. That’s a lie. We live in a world of informal and individualistic religions. Where everybody does what is right in their own eyes. These people are, in reality, no less religious than the average Shiite Muslim.

Its just that their own sensibilities, thoughts, feelings, and desires serve as a highly individualized kind of Shariah law.

Look back at John 16:1-3

The Jews acted on their ignorance in a particular way. The gentiles acted on their ignorance in another way. The problem is universal. A false view of God will lead to a great confusion whereby people sin greatly against God all the while thinking they are being good people who are pleasing their false god.

So that’s one problem. Human beings have wrong ideas about God that lead to wrong actions.

And Jesus has another problem in mind. Namely that his disciples are about to be sent into a full of spiritual darkness.

Think for a moment about how it would’ve felt to be a very early adoptor to the gospel of Jesus Christ. As Jesus is speaking these words, the number of faithful followers could fit in a single room.

They early church was like a little fishing boat set out into a global sea of self-righteousness. How would they ever survive?

Well look at vs. 4

But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you. “I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. “

2000 years have passed since the apostles were sent in their little boat into the global sea of self-righteousness. And while we still see plenty of churning ignorance in the world, we can say that the sea is not as troubled as it once was. The promise Habakkuk 2:14 is coming to pass.

"For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea."

The knowledge of the glory of the Lord is specifically the knowledge of Christ – who is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature (Hebrews 1:3)

And this is happening because the Holy Spirit was unleashed, to hover above the chaotic waters, convicting the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. See that in John 16:8-11?

And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

The sea of people in the world, churning in a storm of self-righteous zeal without knowledge is being stilled by the spirit of the Lord. And this is happening through the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

The greek word for convict means to expose. The Holy Spirit is showing people that their self-righteousness is actually just sin; that all their righteousness is as filthy rags.

And he is doing that by showing them the true nature of God as revealed in Christ Jesus.

When the Spirit shows a Jew the truth about Jesus, he repents of his self-righteousness.

When the Spirit shows a Mulim the truth about Jesus, he repents of his self-righteousness.

When the Spirit shows a cultural Christian the truth about Jesus, he repents of his self-righteousness.

The saving work of the Holy Spirit is simply this: Open blind eyes to the glory of King Jesus.

So that’s the first point: The Saving Work of the Holy Spirit. And now we move on to point 2: The Sanctifying Work of the Holy Spirit.

II. Sanctification

We see this in vs. 12-15

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

The disciples, though saved, still need to be progressively sanctified. They need to bring their thoughts, attitudes, and actions into conformity to the truth about God. And here we see that the Holy Spirit sanctifies Christians in precisely the same way he saves them. He shows them Christ. He will take what is Christ’s and declare it to them.

2 Corinthians 3:16-18

But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

How does the Holy Spirit affect salvation? By showing the sinner the truth about Christ.

How does the Holy Spirit affect sanctification? Same thing. By showing them Christ and as they behold the glory of the Lord (that’s Jesus… Hebrews 1:2) and being transformed into what they see from one degree of glory to another.

This is what Jesus is talking about when he says, ““I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

Application:

What can we do with these truths?

Firstly, we can view the brokenness of the world through the eyes of faith.

There was a book published in 1995 called The Death of Satan: How Americans Have Lost Their Sense of Evil by Andrew Delbanco. There he writes,

A gulf has opened up in our culture between the visibility of evil and the intellectual resources available for coping with it. Never before have images of horror been so widely disseminated and so appalling–from organized death camps to children starving in famines that might have been averted. Rarely does a week go by without newspaper and television accounts of teenagers performing contract killings for a few dollars, women murdered on the street for their purses or their furs, young men shot in the head for the keys to their jeep–and these are only the domestic bulletins…

The repertoire of evil has never been richer. Yet never have our responses been so weak. We have no language for connecting our inner lives with the horrors that pass before our eyes in the outer world…

What Delbanco wrote in 1995 is so much more true in 2025.

There are still many storms of self-righteousness in the world. Still many dark and despicable actions flowing from a faulty understanding of God, and the true, the good, and the beautiful.

How are we to navigate this choppy sea? We need to take our eyes off the waves and see the spirit hovering over these chaotic waters. The power of God has been unleashed upon the world and every day, more and more people are having the scales fall off their eyes so that they can see the glory of God in Christ Jesus.

We need to stop looking out at the waves and start looking up at the Spirit’s relentless march through the worlds individuals and institutions. The Spirit is unstoppable. He will not stop working until the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers the earth like the waters cover the sea.

What started as a little band of believers in a single row boat, has today become a massive Navy conquering the whole earth with the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.

“He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.”

Think of how much that promise has already come to pass. And count the Lord’s past faithfulness as undeniable evidence of his future faithfulness.

The Holy Spirit is engaged in a global work we might describe as a kind of merciful militancy. It is militant because the aim is conquest. He will not stop until all of the Lord’s enemies are made his footstool. It is merciful because the primary means of conquest is conversion.

In the past 24 hours, it is all but guaranteed that some muslim in the middle east woke up from a dream in which King Jesus visited them and led them to a proper knowledge of God.

This morning some young man in America will finally see that Christ is all in all.

Some up and coming politician will put his faith in Christ.

The merciful militancy of the Spirit is marching on and will not be stopped. People everywhere are, even this weekend, having their eyes opened to behold the “ the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.”

So again, thanks to technology, we have all these new ways of looking out into the world and seeing the darkness. But faith is the original technology – by which we look up and see that the light has come into the world and the darkness has not overcome it!

The second point of application involves the problems we see when we look not out, but in. When gospel light shines on us, we see all sorts of troubling things at work in our spiritual house.

We see a tepid love for Jesus. We see constant temptation to sin. We do not love God as we know we should. Nor do we love our neighbor as well as we ought.

But remember, the same spirit that is ruthlessly saving sinners is applying that same merciful militancy to our own sanctification. And he is doing that work in exactly the same way he saves.

He shows us Christ. Therefore in addition to encouraging you to look up, and not only out, I want to encourage you to look up and not only in.

This is the thing that our spiritual fathers were most eager for us to do.

"Turn your eyes away from your own handiwork, and look simply at Christ. The less you pore over your own heart, and the more you fix your thoughts on Him, the better." – JC Ryle

"Therefore, let us not look at our own righteousness or unrighteousness, but let us look at Christ, who is our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." – Martin Luther

"Look away from self to Christ. Do not spend your time studying your own heart and character to see whether you are a Christian or not; but get your eye on Christ, the perfect pattern, and leave the results with God." – Charles Spurgeon

"Let us live in the constant contemplation of the glory of Christ, and virtue will proceed from Him to repair all our decays, to renew a right spirit within us, and to cause us to abound in all duties of obedience." – John Owen

Oh praise God for the tremendous gift of the Holy Spirit. He is curing the world of its self-righteousness by revealing Christ. And he is curing us too, of all sorts of spots, wrinkles, and blemishes – transforming us from one degree of glory to another – as we behold the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ.

For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

One final point. Look back at John 16:12-15,

Here Jesus is restating something he said in chapter 14:25

“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”

These scriptures show us how the Holy Spirit does his work. Yes, by revealing Christ, but specifically by illuminating the word of Christ.

How will he calm the choppy seas of self-righteousness in the world? By sending out Christians who will speak God’s word over it.

Romans 10:13-14 says, “For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?”

And how will the Holy Spirit continue to sanctify you and I? By bringing to remembrance all that Jesus taught us.

Here is a final and essential takeaway from Jesus’ teaching about the Holy Spirit.

The Christian has the opportunity to experience the Holy Spirit’s power in two ways:

Firstly, the Christian can experience the power of the Holy Spirit as they share the gospel word with a lost world.

Secondly, the Christian can experience the power of the Holy Spirit in their own sanctification as He actively, throughout the day, brings up certain scriptures that offer truth, guidance, and instruction about the various situations we encounter.

But understand this, not all Christians will experience the Holy Spirit equally. This is not because God is playing favorites. But rather, it is because the Holy Spirit tends to only use the amount of bible that each believer knows.

Again from chapter 14:25

The Holy Spirit’s primary power lies in helping you remember the word you have previously read.

So your experience with the Holy Spirit is pretty significantly fixed to your time in the Holy Scriptures.

Illustration: Many of you know that quarterbacks have little speakers in their helmets. They receive the play call from the offensive coordinator and then run the play. But that system only works if the quarterback knows the plays.

A young quarterback, with a limited knowledge of the playbook is going to have a qualitatively inferior experience compared to a seasoned quarterback who has a total mastery of the playbook.

Likewise, your experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit is going to practically depend, in large part, on your knowledge of the scriptures.

This is a key explanation for the apostle’s unusual effectiveness in the early church. As young boys, they were raised up on a very intense diet of Old Testament scriptures. They knew those scriptures backwards and forwards. So when the Holy Spirit fell upon them, and showed them how all of those things pertained to Christ, their hearts and minds came preloaded with plenty of plays that the Holy Spirit could bring to their remembrance.

Quick Summary:

Don’t be dismayed by the sea of self-righteousness that seems to cover the world. The Holy Spirit is on the move. He is engaged in the merciful militancy of convicting the world by showing them Christ.

Don’t be dismayed by your lack of progress in sanctification. The same spirit who is to this day converting people, is at work to conform you to the image of Christ.

Don’t neglect the bible. This is what the Holy Spirit uses to do his work.

The Divine Vinedresser

Dov Cohen — Sun, 30 Mar 2025 10:00:00 +0100

The Divine Vinedresser

Series: John

Speaker: Dov Cohen

Sunday Morning

Date: 30th March 2025

Passage: John 15:1-27

Gyroscopic Hearts

Chris Oswald — Sun, 23 Mar 2025 10:00:00 +0000

Gyroscopic Hearts

Series: John

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 23rd March 2025

Passage: John 14:1-31

Suffering is a Showcase for God

Chris Oswald — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 10:00:00 +0000

Suffering is a Showcase for God

Series: John

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 16th February 2025

Passage: John 9:1-41

Eternal Divergence

Dov Cohen — Sun, 09 Feb 2025 10:00:00 +0000

Eternal Divergence

Series: John

Speaker: Dov Cohen

Sunday Morning

Date: 9th February 2025

Passage: John 8:1-59

No One Ever Spoke Like This Man

Dov Cohen — Sun, 02 Feb 2025 10:00:00 +0000

No One Ever Spoke Like This Man

Series: John

Speaker: Dov Cohen

Sunday Morning

Date: 2nd February 2025

Passage: John 7:1-53

The Menu is Not the Meal

Chris Oswald — Sun, 26 Jan 2025 10:00:00 +0000

The Menu is Not the Meal

Series: John

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 26th January 2025

Passage: John 5:44-6:71

-------------------

Text: John 5:44-6:71 Title: The Menu is Not the Meal

Introduction:

This is Not a Pipe (Ceci n'est pas une pipe) Rene Margritte. 1929 Treachery of Images

The Map is Not the Territory Alfred Korzybski

The Menu is Not the Meal Allan Watts

Signifier / Signified distinction Words that represent the real thing

This is very adjacent to the way the bible talks about earthly things vs. eternal things.

In CS Lewis’ The Great Divorce, “They have thought of their world as the “real” one, the one with substance, while thinking of heaven as the less substantial spirit world. They learn, or those with eyes to see learn, that they had it backwards. Heaven is the land of substance, earth the land of shadow. Earth is full of not only shadows, but illusions and pretentions, Heaven is reality itself.” – Randy Alcorn

That’s what we believe right? That this world is more like menu than a meal? It is telling us about what’s to come.

This is also the way the bible talks about the Old Covenant in relationship to the New.

Hebrews 10:1 – “For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities…”

When you confuse the menu with the meal, you invariably wind up making too much of the creation and too little of the creator.

The gospel of John seems written to deal with this issue. When this gospel was written, the majority of Jews had rejected Jesus and remained committed to Moses. They had rejected the meal in favor of the menu. They mistook the map for the territory. One key to understanding the book of John is to see how he constantly compares Moses with Jesus.

Moses As A Character in The Fourth Gospel Prophet-King: Moses Traditions and the Johaninne Christology Moses in the Gospel of John

I scanned through those resources this week. Here’s a basic sketch of how Moses appears in the gospel of John:

Genesis / John 1

Firstly, you need to note how the gospel of John begins like Moses’ first book begins. John is clearly repeating the creation story in Genesis.

Christ:

"The darkness comprehended it (the light of Christ) not... the (Jewish) world knew him not" (John 1:5,10).

Moses:

"Israel" understood not" the work of Moses (Acts 7:25).

Christ:

"He came unto his own, and his own received him not" (John 1:11).

Moses:

When he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren... he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them" (Acts 7:23,25). Therefore Moses in the court of Pharaoh = Jesus working in Nazareth until age 30. Was Moses's "surprise" at Israel's lack of response reflected in Christ (cp. Is. 50:2-7; 59:16)? Despite his own righteousness, did Christ think too highly of the potential spirituality of Israel (Lk. 13:9; 20:13 cp. his high regard of others' spirituality: Mt. 8:10; 11:11; 15:28)? If the Lord respected others so much - shouldn't we have deep respect for each other? The pain of Moses' rejection = Christ's; although he was rich, Moses had become poor for their sakes.

And then in 1:17, we have our first explicit reference to Moses,

“The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”

And then in 1:18, we have another implicit connection to Moses,

“No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”

Another implicit one in vs. 19, “the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

And then in vs. 45, we have another explicit reference.

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

One thing to bear in mind is that plenty of people got the connection between Jesus and Moses right off the bat. Phillip had that part squared away from day 1.

The next explicit reference to Moses is in John 3:17, where Jesus says to one of these teachers of the law, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

I could go on and on.

Woman at the Well / Moses meets Zipporah. The man paralyzed for 38 years. The exact length of time Israel floundered in the wilderness. In John 5, Jesus says he can do nothing of himself. In Numbers, Moses says something very similar.

And all of this leads us back to what Jesus said in chapter 5

How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” – Jn 5:44-47

And plenty of people grasped this – at least at some level.

After feeding the 5000, the people said –

So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, “This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!” (Jn 6:13-14)

That’s a reference to something Moses said in Deuteronomy 18:15-19

15 “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— 16 just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ 17 And the LORD said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.

Moses was the menu, Jesus is the meal. Moses was the map, Jesus is the territory.

Initially, the people seem to be dialed into this reality.

After Jesus feeds the people, he leaves. The people follow. They find him and ask for more food. Jesus shifts the focus from physical bread to the bread of life…

Moses is intertwined with all of this:

Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ” Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

And toward the end of chapter 6, Jesus says…

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” – 6:47-51

Problem: One who is greater than Moses is coming – which means he will make more food. They didn’t have a category for greater kind of food.

As so, in vs,. 66 – After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

Look at vs. 67-69

So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

You have the words of eternal life…. That’s Moses’ job!

Moses was the word guy. He’s the one who descended the mountain, presented the law and later in Deuteronomy explicitly says, “Take to heart all these words I testify among you today, so that you may command your children to carefully follow all the words of this law. 47For they are not idle words to you, because they are your life, and by them you will live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” – Deuteronomy 32:47

Application:

Your eternal joy depends on your ability to distinguish between representations, symbols, or ideas and their corresponding realities.

The sign is not the destination. The blueprint is not the building. The map is not the territory. The menu is not the meal. The model is not the machine. The brochure is not the vacation.

We do ok with 2D things like signs, menus, maps… But we really struggle with more complex ideas.

In some ways, every meal you’ve ever eaten is a kind of menu pointing you to a corresponding set of spiritual realities. This is happening a lot in John.

Woman at the well – water / living water Crowd in John 6 – bread / the bread of life

People struggle with this way of thinking. That’s being earthly minded is.

That’s what idolatry is. Idolatry is what happens when the sign becomes the destination.

There’s a couple of good examples of this in the book of Acts…

Acts 14 – Paul and Barnabbas are in Lystra. And while Paul is preaching, a lame man is healed. The people get it in their heads that Paul and Barnabas are Zeus and Hermes. They got ready to offer sacrifices to them.

Listen to vs. 14-18

But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men, of like nature with you, and we bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them. In past generations he allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.” Even with these words they scarcely restrained the people from offering sacrifice to them.

Acts 17 – Paul is entering Athens. He sees a city littered with idols. He goes into the Aereopaghus and says in vs. 24-27,

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,

What’s he doing? He’s moving the idolators off of the menu (which is creation) and into the meal (which is Christ).

The Jews have done this with Judaism. They’re trying to get nourishment from the menu of Moses – while rejecting the meal that is Christ.

Where are you and I doing this?

Romantic love Money Children Freedom Health Friendships Comfort Safety

These are all creational breadcrumbs meant to lead you to the creator. They are more like signs than destinations.

Apathy

But plenty of people settle into a kind of spiritual complacency when they accumulate these things.

Illustration:

Map/Territory confusion. We tend think the only potential problem with a map is that it might be inaccurate. But there’s another problem. Some people will confuse their knowledge of the map with actually spending time in the territory.

Illustration:

Buckies Billboard

Greed / Grief

One of the ways God teaches us to distinguish between the menu and the meal is by withholding various created glories.

Look back at John 6:1-5

After this Jesus went away to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a large crowd was following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing on the sick. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?”

—--> Phillip is approached because of his Moses comment in John 1

Now look at John 6:24-27 So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boats and went to Capernaum, seeking Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

Sometimes Jesus gave them food, sometimes he didn’t.

Sometimes he will give you the created blessings, sometimes he won’t. Sometimes he will give them to you and then take them away.

He’s not withholding to starve you. He’s withholding to feed you.

That’s the hard thing about idolatry. You can actually taste the menu.

Illustration: Cyberpunk Hellscape, Neurolink, double click on the menu and smell the meal you’re interested in. Taste it. You can see how this would confuse folks into thinking they’re eating. Until they starve to death. No actual calories.

This is somewhat like the way God talks about idolatry.

Jeremiah 2:12-13

“Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”

Isaiah 55:2

“Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.”

Communion:

The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.

When Depravity Meets Divinity

Chris Oswald — Sun, 19 Jan 2025 10:00:00 +0000

When Depravity Meets Divinity

Series: John

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 19th January 2025

Passage: John 5:1-29

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Introduction: Children’s Hospital, Beauty & Brokeness

Everything that takes place in Jerusalem is like that. Especially what we see today in 5:1-2

“After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades.”

This was somewhat architecturally impressive. But the purpose of these pools appears to have been for the purpose of washing, of being cleansed from ceremonial uncleanness, etc… Rabbinc law at the time stated that the water used for purification had to be “living water” – water that moves. So the best understanding of this pool is that the top was a reservoir and then at certain times, they would open the top reservoir, which caused the bottom reservoir to move, bubble, etc… So there’s already the uneasy truce between beauty and brokenness. And then of course we see in vs. 3 that its worse…

“In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.”

The image of Jesus walking among a multitude of physically broken people is bracing for a number of reasons. The God who walked with man and woman in their glorious state is now walking with them in their fallen state.

See what sin and sorrows our father Adam has left for us. – Spurgeon

It seems important to me that while in the gospels, and in our daily lives, we try to view the world through the eyes of Jesus. He is the only human being to ever walk the earth who was not a native to sin. He isn’t desensitized to sin or to the damage it inflicts.

II. The Depravity of Man

Theologians describe what he saw as “total depravity.” There’s some confusion about what this doctrine means. Total depravity does not mean that all men and women are as bad as they possibly could be. Rather, total depravity means that all aspects of human life has been damaged by sin.

Here’s a good definition written by pastor Bill Sasser,

“Every human being has been infected and affected by sin in every part of the body, soul and spirit. The whole, or total, being has been invaded by sin. Thus, "total depravity" means that every faculty of man's being, every activity of his life, and every sphere of his existence has been permeated by sin.”

We see this doctrine displayed quite clearly in chapter 5.

Physical (3)

“In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.”

Psychological (4-6)

“One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?’”

Social (7)

“The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.’”

Riotous competition when the water was stirred No help from anyone outside Religious (8-10)

Mankind is a fundamentally religious being (including those who say “I’m not religious”). Sin has infected and affected his religion as much as any other part of him. One example…

The KJV includes the following, “For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.”

None of the oldest manuscripts include this. So most modern translations do not include it either. This comment appears to be what is known in the translation world as marginalia – comments by the transcribers that eventually found its way into the actual text. And we know about this because there are so many manuscripts of John. So we’re able to see what is original and what is not.

And as we move on, we see another example of religious perversion. Look at vs. 8-10

“Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.’”

Here we see a primary way sin has affected religion. These Jewish leaders are confusing the tradition of man with the commandment of God. We were just in Exodus. So we know that God had indeed commanded the people that for six days they will do their work but on the 7th they will rest. But you won’t find anything forbidding carrying one’s mat after having been healed from a 38 year long disease that left you languishing in a public place as a beggar.

Where did that come from? Well, over time, people began to define work. I doubt any of those definitions were malicious. I bet that 9/10 times, if these Pharisees saw a man carrying a bed on the sabbath, he would indeed be breaking the commandment. I don’t think we need to fault the guys for asking. But we must fault them for this foolish, ideological myopia. His answer should’ve had them renegotiating their own interpretation of the law. Which of course is not what occurs.

II. The Divinity of Christ

Now look at vs. 11-16

But he answered them, “The man who healed me, that man said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’ ” They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?” Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.

Notice the phrase “doing these things” – this implies a pattern

Jesus is not completely blameless here. Meaning, he is not going out of his way to avoid controversy. All he had to do was wait until Monday. If all he wanted to do was heal people, he could get plenty done on the other 6 days a week. He’s up to something.

But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

Only God Works on the Sabbath

This little phrase is one of those spots where the preacher gets his job security. You have to do a fair bit of digging to realize that the same dudes who came up with the rules about carrying mats on the sabbath, also asked a more important question. Does God himself abstain from all work on the sabbath? And the answer was, no – God upheld the universe, he governed creation, so forth. Rabbinical tradition up to this point had reached that consensus. God works on the sabbath.

So you see what Jesus is doing with these Sabbath provocations? He’s telling them that he is God. It is right for God alone to work on the Sabbath. Jesus works on the sabbath.

We’re going to see the exact same thing again in John 9-10. Another Sabbath healing followed by another lecture on his divinity.

You might notice that Jesus is always a little transgressive. Not toward the law of God but toward the longstanding interpretation of the law by religious leaders. He’s always pushing things. He’s talking with the Samaritan woman. He’s telling Nicodemus he’s got a lot to learn. Healing on the sabbath. Turning the ceremonial water jars into wine barrels. Cleansing the temple.

And the typical interpretation of this is that Jesus is anti-traditionalist or something like that. He’s acting this way to get the leaders to ask, “who do you think you are?”

So that he can tell them.

Look at vs. 17-18

“But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.’”

It has become popular for various non-Christians to suggest that Jesus himself never claimed to be God. And that his deity was an invention of people much later on. That’s incorrect.

Look at vs. 19-20

“So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.’”

This is not a typical father/son relationship. Here you see Jesus describing what I would call an ontological impossibility. Meaning, the nature of a thing prevents it from doing certain things. One example would be Hebrews 6:18 – it is impossible for God to lie. Other ideas: A rock can’t swim. A watch cannot make itself. Etc…

Here Jesus is saying, “ I can do nothing of my own accord…” And again in vs. 30, “I can do nothing on my own…”

This not a close relationship between a father and son. A father and son may want many of the same things, but each has their own will and strategy for accomplishing things. A son may be generally submissive to his father but still be capable of doing things his own way. Jesus is saying something much stronger than that.

In John 10:30 he says all of this again, and presses the point even harder – “I am the father are one.”

He’s revealing a doctrine that everybody struggles to understand. Namely the trinity. Which in one sentence can be defined as "The Trinity is the foundational Christian belief that God is one Being who exists in three Persons.” For me, every week’s worth of sermon prep usually builds up some kind of burden for a certain kind of person. And this week it is a burden for those monotheists – Jews, Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses who believe that Jesus was something other than God of very God.

So let me address these friends directly for a moment. I want to warn you explicitly about one presupposition you may have that can absolutely shut you out from the kingdom of God.

Namely that you must fully understand God.

"If God was small enough for my brain to fully understand, He wouldn’t be big enough to save me!”

Look back at vs. 20

“For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.

The greek word is thaumazete – it means to be astonished, confused, surprised, etc…

Jewish, Muslim, Jehovah’s Witness friends, please hear me out. Jesus Christ is God of very God. The evidence is in.

He is greater than Abraham. He is greater than Jacob. He is greater than Moses. He is greater than David and Solomon.

He is not just greater — he is the object of their worship.

Look at vs. 21-22

For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,

The bible says it is appointed unto man to die once and then the judgment. We will all stand before the one true God – the triune God. We will not be judged by Allah or a Talmudic perversion of Yahweh. We will each stand before Jesus Christ and he will judge the quick and the dead. Separating the sheep from the goats.

And the basis of that judgment is whether or not you believed in him. You may object. But be sure of this, Abraham, Moses, and David will observe the proceeding with total approval.

Summary:

We’ve seen Total Depravity. And we’ve seen the Divinity of Christ. Jesus absolutely did claim to be God. And now we’re ready to discuss our third and final point. The Decision to Make.

Total Depravity. The Divinity of Christ The Decision to Make

Look again at verse 22 22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Life, New Life, Eternal Life, Abundant Life – you’ll see that language throughout John’s gospel. Remember, he’s told us his purpose for sitting down, sometime in the second half of the first century and writing this:

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” – John 20:30-31

What is the nature of this life?

Go back to the first point. We observed that the doctrine of Total Depravity teaches that sin has infected and affected every aspect of our lives.

Physical Psychological Social Religious

The eternal life that Jesus Christ offers involves healing all of this, the progressive recovery from the sickness of sin – which has permeated our entire being.

So the decision to make today is simple. It is the same one Jesus asked of the invalid in vs. 6,

“Do you want to be healed?”

You must believe that Jesus Christ is God. That he came to offer himself as a payment for your sins. And that he rose on the third day because his righteousness was much greater than the collective sin of those he died to save.

Go back to vs. 24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.”

So I plead with all who have not done this to do so now.

But I also want to acknowledge that many in this room have placed their faith in Jesus Christ. And I want to leave you with three points of application:

You will probably have a conversation with a Jew, a Muslim, or a Jehovah’s witness. I recommend you read John 5 with them.

Our progressive recovery from sin’s many afflictions continue. Did you walk in here with physical, psychological, social, or religious problems? Keep looking to the great healer and physician of your soul. He is not done with you. But his work is as good as done. God’s promises are true. You will surely be, and fully be, cleaned without spot, blemish, or wrinkle.

One day you will see him face to face. And he will tell you to enter into the joy of your master. And you will come alive in a way that we cannot comprehend. We are desensitized to the way sin is ruining everything. One day we will burst forth into a level of freedom that is beyond description.

Communion:

For communion, let’s continue in John 5 by looking at vs. 25-29

“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

Good Wine & the Grace of God

Dov Cohen — Sun, 29 Dec 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Good Wine & the Grace of God

Series: John

Speaker: Dov Cohen

Sunday Morning

Date: 29th December 2024

Passage: John 2:1-25

New Men for the Messiah

Chris Oswald — Sun, 22 Dec 2024 10:00:00 +0000

New Men for the Messiah

Series: John

Speaker: Chris Oswald

Sunday Morning

Date: 22nd December 2024

Passage: John 1:12-13

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Today we’re beginning 21 weeks in John.

The chapter begins with an emphasis on the cosmic Christ.

1:1-3, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

1:9-10, “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.”

And then in vs. 14 we see that all of this cosmic power is compressed into one creature, one man – Jesus of Nazareth.

The way John writes about the incarnation reminds me of that quote from Alladin, “unlimited cosmic powers, itty bitty living space.”

Or as Queen Lucy put it in The Last Battle, “In our world too, a stable once had something inside it that was bigger than our whole world.”

Now in the material world, a bunch of energy compressed into a small space is often an explosion waiting to happen.

And in some sense that’s what would happen…

What started out with a baby in a manger wound up converting over half the Roman empire by the third century. Today around 2.6 billion people claim to be Christian. That number is expected to be north of 3 billion by 2050.

So maybe the term “explosion” is appropriate.

Look at John 20:30

So there you have the purpose of the book. “That you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

We will deal with that more in a moment. I actually wanted to draw your attention to the first line, “Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples…”

Now turn to John 21:25

“Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” – John 21:25

Is that literally true? If someone were to have written down everything Jesus ever did – would that library really overflow the world itself?

Jonathan Edwards thought that the word “did” ought to be translated as accomplished. He said in that way, John’s statement is literal.

If here, by the “things that Jesus did,” be not only meant the actions of Christ, but the things done or accomplished by those actions, we may suppose it to be literally true, that if they were written every one, the world itself is not large enough to “contain the books that should be written.” There are other things that belong to what Christ did, besides merely the external action that was immediately visible to the eye, or the words that might be heard by the ear, which we must suppose are included in what the Evangelist means by the “things that he did.”

The apostle John in this history mentions some of them, but to mention all would be to write a declaration of all the glorious wise purposes and designs of God’s wisdom and grace, and the love of Christ, and all that belongs to that manifold wisdom of God, and those unsearchable riches of wisdom and knowledge in the work of redemption that we read of in the Scripture, which, if they should be all written, ’tis probable the universe would not contain the books.

The point being, the creator of the world – becoming a creature – unlimited cosmic power // itty bitty living space – that was ground zero for a kind of world altering explosion.

Krakatoa

Four times as much force as the most powerful thermonuclear weapon ever detonated. People 3000 miles away heard the explosion – which witnesses first assumed was a canon being fired. (due to the speed of sound, they heard it 4 hours after the actual blast) The eruption is estimated to have reached 180 dB – the loudest sound in history. The acoustic shockwave traveled around the entire world three times. It killed around 40,000 people Created multiple tsunamis with 100 foot waves The ash started a volcanic winter in the Northern Hemisphere California had record rainfall. The sky was darker than normal for years afterward Vibrantly red sunsets for the same period The jet stream was discovered due to Krakatoa. People were able to visibly identify it due to the movement of the ash. White moonbeams shining through the clouds emerged blue and sometimes green. People also saw lavender suns In 2004, an astronomer proposed the idea that the red sky shown in Edvard Munch's 1893 painting The Scream is an accurate depiction of the sky over Norway after the eruption. (10 years after the eruption)

So that’s the effect of a considerable amount of compressed energy exploding into the world. In vs. 12, we see the main thing Jesus has accomplished:

12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

This is the main idea of the gospel. Every other aspect of the gospel is, in some way secondary to this. The whole point of Christ’s coming was to do this – to bring many sons and daughters to glory.

In his classic book Knowing God, JI Packer states:

Everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. “Father” is the Christian name for God. Our understanding of Christianity cannot be better than our grasp of adoption in Christ….If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much they make of being God’s child, and having God as our Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls their worship, prayers, and whole outlook on life, they do not understand Christianity very well at all (J. I. Packer, Knowing God).

You’ll notice that Packer is using the word adoption to describe all of this. Which of course is a word that the bible uses repeatedly. But that word isn’t used in our text. Instead we have the word born.

That’s an important distinction to note. The word adoption does a good job of describing many of the glories of conversion. Adoption indicates transfer from one family to another. Adoption indicates a legal status. It indicates God’s free choice to make a people out of those who were not a people. But the one thing the word adoption doesn’t communicate very well is a fundamental change of nature. To describe that aspect, the bible uses the word born.

We see that in vs. 13 and we see it repeated again in chapter three.

Verse 3: Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

And again in verse 7, Jesus tells Nicodemus – “you must be born again.”

The word adoption covers many of the glories of the gospel. But it cannot, by itself, include one central aspect of conversion – the actual change of nature which occurs in a person who has been saved.

That’s a very significant detail. In fact, it might be the central detail. Making new men and women – a new kind of man and woman – that’s the central work of the incarnation.

“God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man.” – Lewis, Mere Christianity

That’s why the world is so different now than it was prior to the coming of Christ. A new kind of person is walking around. And these people are filled with the divine life of God himself. That is what John meant in chapter 20:30 – “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

That’s what having life in his name means – being made into a new creation – having the life of God in the soul of man.

In John 7, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” – John 7:37-38

And that’s what God has done. He has created a people who love him.

In the 17th century, a young scottish minister named Henry Scougal heard that one of his friends had lost the faith and become disillusioned with Christian living. So Scougal wrote him a letter – which was later published as a small book entitled “The Life of God in the Soul of Man.”

That title is what we’re talking about. That is the fallout of the massive Christ entering the world. He has made it possible for men and women to have the life of God at work in their souls. The letter has been rewritten in modern english. Listen to Scougal’s description of the Christian life.

Again, religion can be thought of as a way of life, because it is an internal, free, and self-motivated force. Those who have made progress in it are not just driven by external pressures, threatened by consequences, or bribed by rewards; they are strongly drawn to what is good and take pleasure in doing it. The love that a devout person has for God and goodness is not just because of a command telling them to do so, but because of a new nature that guides and encourages them. They don't just offer their devotion as a way to appease divine justice or to quiet their conscience; rather, these religious practices are the result of the divine life, the natural activities of a reborn soul.

He prays, gives thanks, and repents not only because it is expected of him, but because he is aware of his needs, the divine goodness, and the foolishness and suffering that comes with a sinful life. His charity is not forced, nor is his giving coerced; his love makes him willing to give, and even if there were no external obligation, his heart would still be generous.

That is what Lewis is getting at when he says, “God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man.”

Galatians 5

Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Human beings move from mostly living in column A to mostly living in column B.

A new kind of human is in the world. He is a partaker of the divine nature. He is indwelt with the spirit of God. He is a temple of the Holy Spirit. He loves God. He forgives those who sin against him. He is generous. He is patient. He blesses his enemies. He loves his wife with sacrificial love. He raises his children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. He offers his work to his employer as unto the Lord. He invests his time and energy into positive things. He is a man of prayer. He meditates on God’s word. He honors his father and mother. His belief in objective reality makes him capable of doing science. His belief in objective morality makes him capable of establishing and keeping just laws. He is able to admonish the idle. Help the weak. Encourage the faint hearted. And be patient with them all. He starts to get serious freedom over the various vampires of vice that bleed people dry. Sexual sin Careless speech Various addictions Bad company He has some kind of divine discernment. He is able to see through the lies of sin and Satan. He sees Jesus as both savior and model for his behavior. He has eternal assurance that no matter how hard this life may be, he will one day be in the presence of God who has countless pleasures in store for him.

And all of this is delivered to us in a way that prevents boasting. Look back at John 1:12-13,

We didn’t get here by our own efforts or even by the efforts of our families. We got here by the will of God alone.

One commentator puts it…

We shall have cause again in the course of the gospel to observe John’s recognition of the complexity and mystery of a salvation which is both ‘willed by man, and worked by God’ (Schlatter). While both sides of the equation are asserted here (as they are throughout the gospel), the stress falls at this point on the sovereign action of God. Christians become such by being born of God (13). This birth is to be radically distinguished from human birth, with its human initiatives. All these are irrelevant in the case of spiritual rebirth; it is not something we can take into our own hands. We are born of God.

So God has given Christians a new nature. They are a new kind of person created by the coming of Christ. And yet, he’s also made it impossible to boast in this new nature – as if we had done it ourselves.

This new nature comes with tremendous privileges…

You are given the Holy Spirit – Gal 4:6 You have access to the Heavenly Father – Heb 4:16 You are an heir with Christ and will inherit all of his riches – Rom 8:17 You have God’s ongoing sympathy and compassion – Malachi 3:17 “They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.” You have his protection – 2 Thess 3:3, “The Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one.” You have his provision – Matt 6:31-34 You have his discipline – Heb 12:6-7 You have his promise – he will never leave you nor forsake you – Psalm 94:14 You have a kind of freedom the unregenerate do not – Galatians 4:6

This is the main reason Christ has come into the world. This is the main theme of John.